Human Impact Project

Protesters who had camped in a roughly 100-to-200-year-old Fremont cottonwood tree near Lochiel, Arizona, since late July to block border wall construction were removed by Border Patrol agents, who then tore down the tree. Sierra Club borderlands coordinator Erick Meza, a spokesman for the group, said more than 50 Border Patrol agents arrived before dawn on private property; protesters said as many as 200 agents entered during a sunrise prayer and meditation session. A cherry picker or crane was used to pull one activist from a platform about 60 feet up in the tree's branches before the tree was excavated. About a dozen people were arrested, with some later released, and ten others were cited; Customs and Border Protection confirmed the tree's removal, which cleared the way for a 27-mile double-layer border wall project under a $334 million CBP contract. Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said his office was not involved in or notified of the raid. Three other protesters had previously been arrested by Cochise County sheriff's deputies in September and charged with disorderly conduct for protesting the construction.

Armelle Bondonga, a 21-year-old who came to the U.S. as a child from the Democratic Republic of Congo under her father's asylum case, was detained by ICE agents on August 12 during her marriage-based green card interview at the USCIS field office in Louisville. Her husband, U.S. citizen Terrance Bradshaw, and their 19-month-old U.S. citizen son were present when agents separated the couple; Bradshaw left with their son. Bondonga had a final removal order from November 2025 but was pursuing residency through marriage, with Bradshaw's I-130 petition still pending. Her attorneys argued agents lacked a warrant and unlawfully detained her, while federal officials called the arrest a lawful targeted operation. She was held for eight weeks at the Clark County jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana, after an immigration judge denied bond in September. Community members, including Sadiqa Reynolds, rallied on her behalf, and more than 1,300 people signed an open letter supporting her. A federal judge later granted her habeas corpus petition, finding her continued detention unauthorized since the 90-day removal period had expired, and ordered her immediate release.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who has lived in Maryland for years with his U.S. citizen wife and young son, who has autism, was arrested in Baltimore in March 2025 and mistakenly deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison despite a 2019 court order protecting him, an error ICE later admitted. Following public pressure and a Supreme Court order, he was returned to the U.S. in June 2025, after which federal prosecutors indicted him on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Costa Rica offered him refugee status in August 2025, but the administration instead pursued deporting him to Liberia. A judge ordered his release from ICE custody in December 2025 after finding government lawyers misled the court, and later blocked his re-detention and deportation to Liberia. A federal judge dismissed the smuggling charges in May 2026, finding them a vindictive response to his legal challenges, a ruling the government is appealing to the Sixth Circuit. A federal court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, meant to determine whether he would be deported to Liberia was abruptly canceled, as his legal team seeks a permanent injunction and argues he should instead be sent to Costa Rica.

A crew of five Ecuadorian roofing/construction workers were pulled over and detained by ICE agents while driving to a job site near Route 11 in Londonderry, Vermont. Several of the men had entered the U.S. during the Biden administration while pursuing asylum claims. A local resident captured video showing unmarked vehicles and the men being held against a vehicle during the stop. All five were transported to an out-of-state detention facility, but with legal assistance they secured bond hearings before an immigration judge and were eventually released. The arrests occurred amid months of heightened ICE activity in Vermont, including a March 11 raid in South Burlington that detained three people later released, prompting protests, lawsuits, and discussions among state representatives and local leaders about community protection measures.

A mechanic and grandfather from Mendota was detained by ICE officers in downtown Fresno on Monday while he was picking up auto parts for a car he was repairing. His granddaughter, Jade Torres, said he had lived in Mendota for years and owned his own mechanic shop. Following his detention, he was transferred to a facility in McFarland, which houses two ICE detention centers, and his family said he could be moved further, potentially out of state. Mendota Mayor Victor Martinez said he had received reports of immigration operations in the area and believed they were primarily targeting people with criminal records, though he noted others without records could also be detained. Martinez said, "It seems very unfair to me, very unfair, that we're finishing harvest season in the fields, and now they're starting raids."

The Department of Justice filed denaturalization actions against 40 naturalized U.S. citizens, accusing them of concealing "serious offenses" during the naturalization process, including acting as an agent for a foreign government, voluntary manslaughter, and aggravated sodomy against a special-needs man. Attorney General Todd Blanche called it "the largest denaturalization effort in modern history," and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said the individuals "lied their way into U.S. citizenship." The 40 people originally came from countries including Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, Haiti, Nepal, and Ghana, part of a broader push that has targeted hundreds of naturalized Americans for denaturalization this year.

A man waiting on a sidewalk next to a parked car for a ride to work was detained by ICE agents in Santa Maria on Monday, after video showed an agent's government vehicle roll forward and crash head-on into the parked car during the arrest. The agent had stepped out of the vehicle without shifting it into park before it struck the car, and a second agent in the passenger seat got out as the driver reversed and repositioned it. 805 UndocuFund organizer Claudia Gonzalez, who said her group was in contact with the detainee's family, described the incident as an example of ICE agents' "aggressiveness" and "incompetence."

U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown, appointed by President Trump, ruled that ICE agents illegally arrested Angel Jesus Almonte during a May operation in the Bronx targeting Dario Santos-Amarante, despite striking physical differences between the two men. Brown's 28-page opinion found agents falsified arrest paperwork, including a "substantially false" administrative warrant prepared after Almonte's detention, and gave testimony about alleged drug transactions that bore "all the hallmarks of coordinated fabrication," while official records showed only motor vehicle charges. A supervisor testified that five database searches had initially returned negative results before the warrant falsely claimed biometric confirmation. The same operation also led to the violent arrest of U.S. citizen Jeury Concepcion, who suffered head injuries requiring stitches after being mistaken for the target; Brown provisionally granted Almonte's habeas petition and ordered the government to explain within 21 days how it will address the problems identified, while considering possible sanctions.

Peterson Nozil, a 37-year-old Haitian national who has lived in Springfield since August 2022, was stopped and arrested while driving home with his family in the car. He had been inspected at the border, granted humanitarian parole, later received temporary protected status, held a valid work permit, and had applied for asylum. His attorney, Maria Otero, filed a habeas corpus petition on Oct. 1 in the Southern District of Ohio seeking a bond hearing and his release from the Butler County Jail, joining several other Haitian nationals in southwest Ohio challenging ICE's mandatory detention policy. The petition was supported by exhibits including his marriage license, his daughter's birth certificate, an employer letter, a church certificate, and letters of support. Judge Matthew W. McFarland ordered the government to respond to the petition by Oct. 5.

Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant and honor student who had just begun studying at Wright State University after being recruited to play soccer, died after being struck by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70 near Springfield, Ohio, in what his family describes as a suicide. Bel hoped to study neuroscience and had a pending asylum claim with a hearing scheduled for October. His father said his son felt 'treated like an animal' after ICE required him to report to its Cincinnati office in August, where he was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor; in a July Instagram post, Bel wrote that wearing the device brought him 'shame and humiliation' he never imagined experiencing. Loved ones say he was deeply affected by bullying tied to the monitor. His death followed intensified ICE enforcement against Haitians in Springfield after many lost Temporary Protected Status, including the detention of two longtime Haitian pastors. Hundreds gathered in Springfield for his funeral, as Haitian families in the community remain afraid to leave their homes while deportation flights to Haiti continue.

Elder Chavez Carranza, an 18-year-old junior at Asbury High School in Albertville, Alabama, was detained by ICE on December 30, 2025, after a state trooper stopped him for speeding and driving without a license and contacted immigration officials. Chavez Carranza, originally from Copan, Honduras, fled violence and poverty and entered the U.S. at age 14, later being granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, though a separate deferred-action and green card application remains unresolved. He is held at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he says he has lacked adequate food and dental care, works as a painter earning $1 per day, and shares a room with 54 other men. His sister and legal guardian, Maryuri Chavez Carranza, a former teacher, said he calls her daily and misses his teachers, friends, senior year activities, and the birth of his nephew. By September 2026 he had spent more than 200 days in detention, as advocates including Angela Del Valle organized vigils across three states and raised concerns about conditions at Winn, where two detainees had died in less than two months.

Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen and teaching assistant, was shot seven times by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum on October 4, 2025, in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood during Operation Midway Blitz. Prosecutors initially alleged Martinez and co-defendant Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz rammed an agent's vehicle, charging her with assaulting a federal officer and calling her a 'domestic terrorist.' Martinez's attorneys disputed the account, citing body camera footage of an agent telling her to 'do something' before shooting and a bullet trajectory analysis showing Exum fired from behind her vehicle. She was arrested by the FBI while still bleeding in the hospital, and a judge ordered her release two days later. Federal prosecutors dismissed all charges in November after text messages surfaced showing Exum bragging, 'I fired 5 shots and she had 7 holes,' and a federal judge ruled the agents' use of force 'shocks the conscience.' The dismissal is among at least nine protest-related cases tied to the operation that prosecutors have dropped. Martinez has since filed a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit against the federal government seeking damages.

Delaney Hall, a for-profit ICE detention center in Newark, faced scrutiny after detainees began a hunger strike and reported spoiled food, lack of medical care, and inadequate gynecological services, including an 18-year-old high school student and a woman who said she miscarried without assistance. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was handcuffed and arrested on trespassing charges while visiting the facility with congressional representatives, repeating 'I'm not resisting' as agents restrained him; he was held for five hours before charges were dropped. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who stood between Baraka and ICE agents during the visit, was later charged with three felony counts of assaulting federal agents after the government claimed she had 'slammed' an agent; she is still fighting the case. Days later, on Memorial Day, Senator Andy Kim visited to mediate between protesters and detainees, standing with arms raised between armed ICE agents and the crowd before agents fired tear gas and pepper balls at him and demonstrators, leaving him needing aid for burning eyes and throat. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied entry but heard from detainees' family members about conditions inside.

Amy Lucia López Belloza, a 19-year-old Babson College freshman on scholarship, was detained by ICE at Boston Logan Airport in November 2025 while trying to board a flight to surprise her parents for a family Thanksgiving reunion. She was unaware a removal order had been issued against her in 2017, when she was 11, after an immigration judge denied her and her mother's asylum claims. A federal judge in Massachusetts ordered that she not be moved out of state or deported, but ICE transferred her to Texas and deported her to Honduras, a country she had not visited since leaving at age 8; the government later conceded in court that an agent had misread the judge's order and apologized, but argued the violation should not affect her case. When offered a return flight in February 2026, she declined after ICE indicated she would be redetained in Texas and deported again. Her habeas corpus lawsuit was dismissed in March 2026 for lack of jurisdiction. She is now continuing her Babson studies remotely while living with her grandparents in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, as her attorneys argue before the First Circuit Court of Appeals that she should be allowed to return to Massachusetts.

Godfrey Wade, a 65-year-old Jamaican-born U.S. Army veteran and lawful permanent resident who came to the U.S. at 15 in 1975, was deported to Jamaica on February 5, 2026, while his appeal remained pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Wade worked as a chef, tailor, tennis coach and fashion designer while raising six children and three grandchildren with his fiancée April Watkins. He was detained by ICE for nearly five months following a September 2025 traffic stop for driving without a valid license, held at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia and later Richwood in Louisiana, where he endured overcrowding, inadequate food, a water outage, and illness that caused significant weight loss. His deportation stemmed from a 2014 in absentia removal order tied to a 2008 misdemeanor bounced-check conviction, after immigration court notices were mistakenly sent to the wrong address. His daughter said he was removed without warning, arriving in Jamaica with only the clothes he wore before being hospitalized for pneumonia; his fiancée and daughter said he drew portraits of fellow detainees to lift their spirits and have since raised funds and a petition seeking him a day in court. In October, a Douglas County Superior Court judge granted his habeas corpus petition, voiding the 2008 conviction and giving him a new chance to fight his case, which remains pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

ICE agent Christian Castro shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a 24-year-old Venezuelan man, through the front door of his north Minneapolis home during a January 14, 2026 raid tied to Operation Metro Surge. His partner, Indriany Mendoza Camacho, said agents threw tear gas into the home, which had children present, and the bullet traveled into a child's room. Federal prosecutors initially charged Sosa-Celis and his cousin/roommate Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna with assaulting officers using a shovel and broomstick, claiming a three-minute attack, but surveillance video showed only a 12-second confrontation with no sustained attack. Prosecutors had access to the video within hours but did not review it until nearly three weeks later; both charges were dropped after officials acknowledged agents had lied under oath. Two ICE agents were placed on administrative leave, and Hennepin County later charged Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime. Castro was arrested in Texas, but Governor Greg Abbott refused extradition, prompting a lawsuit from Minnesota's attorney general; the Justice Department then charged Castro only with making false statements, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney who objected to that decision was fired.

Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen from San Antonio, was fatally shot three times by Homeland Security Investigations Agent Jack Stevens in March 2025 on South Padre Island, Texas, while traveling with his best friend Joshua Orta to celebrate his birthday. Federal officials claimed Martinez tried to run over the agent with his car, but bodycam footage later obtained through a FOIA lawsuit showed his vehicle stationary or barely moving with brake lights engaged when agents fired through the window; Martinez was then pulled from the car, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed before receiving medical care, and died at a Brownsville hospital. Orta, the only civilian witness, said Martinez was 'hesitant' and 'scared'; he died in a car crash less than a year later. The government did not disclose the shooting for nearly a year, until the nonprofit American Oversight obtained the incident report. Martinez's mother, Rachel Reyes, said Texas Rangers investigators told her the footage contradicted the agents' account. A Cameron County grand jury declined to indict Stevens, and the family has filed a tort claim against the federal government for wrongful death and requested a federal investigation and release of records.

Danilo Alves Silva, 46, was arrested after authorities said he dressed up as an ICE agent—wearing an ICE hat, raid jacket, tactical gear, and a face mask—to intimidate voters at a Miami-Dade College polling site during Brazil's presidential election. Several voters became visibly afraid that an immigration agent was interfering with the election and could deport them. Silva later admitted the outfit was a costume he bought online and said he returned to record people's reactions after voting himself. He allegedly threatened a detective and offered a bribe after being detained, and faces charges including felony voting intimidation, bribery, threatening a public servant, and unlawful use of police insignia.

Phone Chomsavanh, a Laotian citizen who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to the U.S. with his family at age 7, was released from Eswatini's maximum-security Matsapha Correctional Complex on Sunday after being held there for more than 14 months. He was deported to Eswatini in July 2025 under the Trump administration's third-country deportation program after already completing his U.S. prison sentence, one of five immigrants sent there at the time. His lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said he was given no notice, hearing, or chance to object before being flown to a country he had no ties to, saying, 'He had already served his time. Instead they put him on a plane without telling him where it was headed and left him in a prison in a country he had never heard of, where nobody ever accused him of anything.' Following his release, he traveled through Johannesburg en route to Laos. The third-country deportation program has sent about 500 immigrants to African nations that are not their countries of origin, with Eswatini receiving roughly 30 people under an agreement with the U.S. in exchange for $5.1 million in payments.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a U.S. citizen walking to a pharmacy in Evanston, Illinois, to fill a prescription, was tackled and detained by federal agents who mistook him for a fugitive near Dodge Avenue and Howard Street. Witnesses, including Miguel Angel Olivares, recorded video showing agents pinning him down and appearing to strike him as he repeatedly stated he was a citizen. He suffered injuries to his head, neck and teeth, bled at the scene, and was taken by Evanston Fire Department ambulance to St. Francis Hospital for treatment. A paramedic and police officer on scene expressed shock that agents drove away while he lay injured in the street. DHS said the man was uncooperative and declined assistance, while an ICE supervisor told Evanston police that agents left because protesters began gathering; Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss confirmed the detention and release, and local police, eyewitnesses, and the group Sanctuary Evanston disputed DHS's account, calling it a violent assault. Evanston police, Illinois authorities, and the FBI are investigating, reviewing body camera footage and 911 audio.